About this role
Job summary
Queen Elizabeth Hospitalis committed to high-quality patient care and staff development. We are currently seeking a passionate, dynamicBand 7 Occupational Therapistto join our newly redeveloped Emergency department team.
The Emergency department at QEH is a fast-paced, dynamic department where you will play a key role in providing holistic assessments and interventions for a diverse range of patients. You'll collaborate with consultants, nurses, physiotherapists, and other healthcare professionals to ensure optimal outcomes for patients and support hospital flow.
As a Band 7 Occupational Therapist, you will be responsible for delivering patient-centered therapy and ensuring safe, effective discharge planning. The role involves managing complex caseloads, adopting coaching and mentoring approaches with junior staff, and contributing to service development and quality improvements.
We need an innovative team player to work alongside the service lead and peers, developing this newly established service and guiding the team in its growth. You will also oversee supervision, training, and development for the team, attend clinical governance meetings, and contribute to departmental and Trust improvements.
Learning and personal development are encouraged, with a well-established appraisal system and funding for relevant external and internal courses.
Main duties of the job
Clinical Expertise:Provide expert assessment and treatment for patients presenting with acute medical , trauma related, and complex functional needs in the ED. This included rapid functional assessment for patients with conditions such as falls, delirium, frailty syndromes, cognitive impairments, safeguarding concerns and functional decline. Discharge Planning:Formulate and implement timely, patient-centred discharge plans in a high-pressure ED setting. Work closely with patients, carers, and the multidisciplinary team to ensure safe discharge home or onward referral, helping to prevent unnecessary admissions and support effective hospital flow. Supervision & Mentorship:Provide clinical supervision, mentoring, and support for staff working in the emergency department and SDEC. Promote reflective practice and ongoing development in a rapidly evolving clinical environment.
Service Improvement:Actively contribute to the development and refinement of the emergency department occupational therapy service. Participate in quality improvement initiatives, governance activities, and service evaluations to ensure high standards of care and innovative practice.
About us
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development Widening access (anchor institution) and employability Improving the experience of staff with disability Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development Making equalities mainstream.
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Job description Job responsibilities JOB PURPOSE
The Occupational Therapy Team Lead provides professional and clinical leadership to Occupational Therapy staff in the Medical Team based at the QEH site.
The post holder supervises the day to day running of the medical Occupational Therapy team and is line managed by the Occupational Therapy Site Lead at QEH. To achieve this, the post holder works in close collaboration with the OT Site Lead QEH, and the other Band 7 Occupational Therapy Team Leads.
The Occupational Therapy Team Lead is a highly experienced clinician in medicine particularly neurology who independently manages a significant and highly specialised clinical caseload.
In conjunction with the OT Site Lead, the post holder coordinates a rollingprogramme of education, clinical evaluation, audit and research within the pathway team atQEH.
As part of the senior clinical Occupational Therapy team on the QEH site, the post holder will deputise for the Occupational Therapy Site Lead QEH as required.
The post is based on the Queen Elizabeth site but may at times be asked to work on other sites in order to maintain service levels
7-day working for Therapies is in place within the Trust and the postholder is required to undertake a different working pattern, including weekends, in the future.
KEY RELATIONSHIPS
INTERNAL INCLUDE: Therapy Managers and Therapy leads, own Teams, referring clinicians, MDTs, on ward, therapy administrative team, HR, other Trust Committees and own clinical teams
EXTERNAL INCLUDE: GPs, Community Services, Social services, Local authorities, AHP managers and leads, Voluntary services, College of Occupational Therapists, Health professions council, DoH Networks and Policy Groups, Higher Education Institutes, Colleges and Schools, NHSE.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical
1. To undertake all aspects of clinical duties and to carry a significant caseload of patients as an autonomous practitioner, including those with highly complex presentations
2. To work at an advanced level and to be professionally and legally accountable for a highly-specialised patient caseload and to decide priorities for own work area, balancing other patient related and professional demands
3. To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, and of the pathway teams work. This will include the management of clinical risk, clinical governance, knowledge of indications and precautions of chosen techniques in line with National and Trust clinical guidelines and protocols where they exist.
4. To assess patients capacity, gain valid informed consent to treatment and where such capacity is lacking/absent to work within a legal framework in the management of the patient
5. To undertake the comprehensive assessment and accurate diagnosis of patients, including those with an extremely complex presentation, using investigative, palpatory, analytical and clinical reasoning skills
6. As appropriate to the job role, to request diagnostic procedures that will inform clinical decision making
Please read attached Job description for full details
All clinical staff are accountable and responsible for their own clinical competence and should limit their actions to those for which they are deemed competent in line with guidance from their professional bodies.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications Essential
Diploma / Degree in Occupational Therapy. HCPC registration Working at M level (e.g. module) or equivalent experience/qualification Undertaken a range of relevant postgraduate courses Undertaken clinical educators training
Desirable
Member of Special interest Group MSC in related subject Undertaken appropriate managerial training BAOT
Skills and Attributes Essential
The ability to discuss advanced clinical reasoning in the management of highly complex cases The ability to identify and act upon adverse clinical signs Able to communicate at advanced level including complex information to patients, Carers, team and other health professionals. Excellent ability to work effectively in a team environment Excellent time management skills with ability to organise, prioritise and delegate. Ability to self direct learning, be critical and evaluate own learning needs, demonstrated in a CPD portfolio. Demonstrates excellent leadership ability and motivational skills Able to provide a high standard of clear concise, written and verbal reports in English Ability to collect and present data for service performance information Excellent teaching and presentation skills IT skills, including using hospital data bases, word processing, excel, email and power point Ability to manage own stress and work in a stressful and unpredictable environment. To show empathy and fairness to give support to others
Desirable
IT skills - Ability to create and/or format data and/or complex spreadsheets using computerised systems
Experience Essential
Wide ranging post graduate Occupational Therapy experience including having held senior position in relevant speciality Significant experience of relevant specialist pathway Experience of working autonomously and unsupervised Experience in managing limited resources and high workloads Experience in leading and completing audit and evidence based projects Experience of supervision and appraisal of Occupational Therapy staff and students with ability to give constructive feedback and performance management when necessary Evidence of actively participating in in-service training and presenting to large MDT groups, undergraduate and postgraduate staff and evaluating effectiveness of training Experience and ability to work collaboratively within MPT Evidence of leading change management and innovation in clinical practice
Desirable
Previous experience at band 7 Level Research experience including publication in recognised journal Presented at national level or external courses relevant to subject area Actively involved in developing research links with other academic institutions Evidence of presenting to MDT groups, undergraduate and postgraduate staff
Knowledge Essential
Extensive specialist knowledge of evidenced based Occupational Therapy for designated specialist pathway In depth knowledge of national guidelines and standards pertaining to specialist pathway and Occupational Therapy Robust understanding of clinical governance and its implication for Occupational Therapy Awareness and understanding of NHS structure, current issues and developments Understanding of the legal responsibilities of the profession
Other Essential
Self motivated with a clear vision of role / commitment to speciality Demonstrate professional independence Work in a flexible manner and adapt to changing environments Physically fit and able to comply with Trusts moving and handling guidelines, therapeutic handling Professional manner and appearance Available for extended hours and 7-day working patterns
Desirable
Use of own transportation. Car driver
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details Employer name Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
Address Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Stadium Road
London
SE18 4QH
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.lewishamandgreenwich.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)